We Can't get there From Here

When I mention in class that there are certain elementary logic problems American students can't seem to solve,the foreign students smirk because they can do these problems easily.

Our public schools are a disaster. Everyone knows it except for some educators who have encased themselves inside a Professional bubble so tight that even oxygen can't get in.

But can we fix it? No. We can't get there from here.

We tie each other in knots and spend billions of unnecessary dollars because we can't change an unreasonable and unjust tort system. So we stand on our heads, and restrict every conceivable freedom because we may be sued, but we do nothing about it because we can't get there from here.

Our parents built a space program and did it in an historical blink of an eye. Want to go to the moon? All right, we can be here in nine years.

Our parents went away and left us with toys that we don't seem to know how to fix. Much like the train systems left in colonial nations when the European powers departed, they simply keep using the same old train until it is worn out.

The space shuttle was designed 40 years ago; the first one flew 30 years ago. The one that fell apart four years ago has not been replaced. We are paying $3 for a gallon of gasoline, but we can't build a refinery. We can't develop an oil field. We can't build a nuclear plant.

We would like to build wind turbines, but golly, they are sort of complicated and expensive and sometimes they kill birds andwell...

We can build a few here and there; just enough to make us think we aredoing something, but never enough to solve the problem. It's really hard to get there from here.

A can't-do nation can not remain rich. We are getting poorer. We hide this from ourselves, but it is true nevertheless.

The value of the dollar has dropped like a rock. It used to be worth more than a Euro. This morning it took $1.36 to buy one Euro. It is very expensive to go to Europe. That is simply another way of saying that we are poorer. The pound has increased in value. Even the Canadian dollar has increased in value. It costs more to go to London and to Vancouver. We are poorer.

An American dollar used to come in the form of a coin that was 90 percent silver. This summer, that silver was worth $10. In other words, the present American dollar is worth about ten cents in constant value.

The government recognizes this. The new dollar coin is a cheap looking little copper thing with such poor workmanship that it is difficult to tell the difference between Washington and Adams on its face.

We hide the impact of this loss by paying each other more dollars, but this doesn't quite work. Look at the older houses and public buildings. They were built with stone and wood and intricate artwork.

We build with materials so thin that our houses look and feel like movie sets. Builders and buyers look at the older buildings and shake their head. "We can't afford that kind of stuff," they say.

In the old can-do nation they could do it, but now we can't gettherefrom here.